Image:
Rachel MOUNSEY
Lois Smith 2022
29th Apr – 17th July 2022
Benalla Botanical Gardens
Space Between Strangers is a collection of tin type portraits of the Benalla community by Oculi photographer Rachel Mounsey. Created in a make-shift darkroom during a one-week residency at Benalla Art Gallery, the portraits reflect a single captured moment following an intimate one-hour conversation between sitter and the artist.
Commissioned to accompany ACTS I-VII, Oculi’s exhibition at Benalla Art Gallery exploring seven modes of being, Space Between Strangers explores these same seven modes with the local community: love and fear, trauma and healing, freedom and oppression, belonging and exclusion, spirit and science, uncertainty and control, life and death.
Inviting intimate conversation that explores deeply human states of being, Mounsey uses the wet plate collodion process to intentionally slow down time during portrait sessions with her sitters. Presented as a large-scale outdoor installation in the Benalla Botanical Gardens, with an accompanying zine on display at Benalla Art Gallery, Space Between Strangers is an attempt to capture the essence of each subject and crystallise a shared moment of intimacy between strangers.
Acknowledgements
Oculi is a collective of 18 fine-art and documentary photographers. Since its inception in 2000, Oculi has been the leading influence in photographic documentary practice in Australia, offering a visual narrative of contemporary life in the region and beyond. ACTS I-VII is curated by Oculi members Aishah Kenton, Abigail Varney, Alana Holmberg, Tajette O’Halloran, and Rachel Mounsey in conversation with Natasha Christia.
Acts I-VII is an official exhibition of PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography, a major biennial of new photography and ideas taking place from 29 April to 22 May in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Responding to the theme ‘Being Human’, PHOTO 2022 explores the role photography plays in understanding the contemporary human condition. PHOTO 2022 is produced by Photo Australia in collaboration with cultural institutions, museums and galleries, and education, industry and government partners.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia. Supported by the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund, an Australian Government initiative.
Thanks to our sponsors. All works have been printed on ILFORD GALERIE Gold Fibre Gloss 310gsm.
